A SPECIAL electors meeting sparked by the Alfred Cove Action Group (ACAG) will be held on January 17 to discuss the future of Tompkins Park.
A motion supported by more than 230 electors has been put forward requesting the council scrap any possible spend preparing land for the proposed wave park and Tompkins Park redevelopment until an ongoing local government inquiry is completed.
The motion also calls for the City to review its decision to move the Melville Bowling Club.
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READ NOWThe authorised inquiry – to include matters related to the council’s relationship with its administration and the adequacy of its policies and procedures – was announced by Local Government Minister David Templeman at the end of 2017 and is ongoing.
A total of 231 signatures were lodged in support of ACAG’s motion, although spokesman Clive Ross said there was a further 60 that would be submitted.
ACAG believes a merger of the Melville and Mt Pleasant bowling clubs at a new site at Tompkins Park was designed to allow land to be freed up for the Wave Park Group to move in.
Mr Ross said any movement on the $25 million Urbnsurf facility and a $9.4 million overhaul of Tompkins Park should cease until the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries has completed its investigation and the State Government has handed down its recommendations.
“It’s prudent to say ‘stop and let’s see which way the ball falls’,” he said.
He said pushing ahead could place the City “in a position we can’t back out of”.
Mr Ross said a growing population and an increasing demand on sporting facilities meant the site was vital, arguing it could be part of “a sports facility for the community”.
Fellow ACAG spokesman David Maynier said talk the mergers were part of the City’s sports hub policy was “nonsense”.
“Having the club where it is (adjacent to the cricket facilities), that’s a hub,” he said.
Melville Mayor Russell Aubrey disagreed there should be a freeze.
“The inquiry is not based on any wrongdoing (but will look at the) processes and procedures which have led to the complaints,” he said.
“There’s a very wide scope, but nothing there specifically relates to the wave park or bowling club.”The electors meeting will be held at the Mt Pleasant Baptist Community College in Booragoon from 7pm on Wednesday, January 17.
Mr Aubrey said moving the meeting to the college was necessary to cater for a turnout expected to be too much for the City’s council chambers to accommodate.
But he said the facility would cost the City $10,000 to rent for the evening.
Wave Park Group (WPG) chairman Andrew Ross said the meeting would be the fourth called by anti-surf park group to debate “essentially the same issues”.
“The real issue is not whether the council should be investing in new sports infrastructure which will be for the benefit of the community as a whole, but why serial protesters and special interest groups continue to waste ratepayer funds and council time with these meetings,” he said.
“The meetings serve no purpose in any event as final decisions have been made by council on both the bowls club relocation and the wave park project.”
He said WPG was pleased to have submitted its environmental assessment to the EPA and looked forward to lodging a development application with the WA Planning Commission in the near future.
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